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Zenyatta Mondatta by  Released3 October 1980Recorded7 July–7 August 1980Studio,  Length38:16
AMLH 64831 The Police  chronology
(1980)Zenyatta Mondatta
(1980)
(1981) from Zenyatta Mondatta ""
Released: 19 September 1980 ""
Released: 5 December 1980

Zenyatta Mondatta (spelled as Zenyattà Mondatta on the album cover artwork) is the third  by English rock band , released in 1980. It was co-produced with . It features the two hit singles: "" and "". It reached number one on the .

The album won The Police two  including  for "" and The Police's second consecutive win for  for "".

History

The album was written during the band's second tour and recorded in four weeks (minus several days for concerts in the UK – Milton Keynes festival – and Ireland). The band members have often expressed disappointment over it, going so far as to re-record two songs during a brief, unsuccessful reunion in 1986. Drummer  said about the time pressures: "We had bitten off more than we could chew. ... we finished the album at 4 a.m. on the day we were starting our next world tour. We went to bed for a few hours and then traveled down to Belgium for the first gig. It was cutting it very fine."

The band had wanted to record the album at Surrey Sound, the recording site of their first two albums, but could not record at any British studio for tax reasons. They were, however, able to retain  as their co-producer, bringing him with them to Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands. Feeling that he'd played a significant part in The Police's first two albums, Gray negotiated for a £25,000 fee, which brought the album's total budget to £35,000 (more than twice the combined budgets of their first two albums, but still exceptionally cheap for a band who were established stars).

As mentioned by Copeland, the Police embarked on a tour of the world the day of the album's completion, beginning in Belgium and finishing in Australia.

The album is the last of the Police's early era, influenced by reggae and  and featuring few musical elements on top of the core guitar, bass, and drums. The record has two , "The Other Way of Stopping" (named from a line in 's "The Driving Instructor" routine) and the Grammy-winning "" . "Behind My Camel" was guitarist ' first entirely self-penned composition. As  refused to play on it, Summers recorded the bass line himself, overdubbing the guitar parts. According to Sting, "I hated that song so much that, one day when I was in the studio, I found the tape lying on the table. So I took it around the back of the studio and actually buried it in the garden." Nigel Gray believed that the title was an in-joke by Summers: "He didn't tell me this himself but I'm 98% sure the reason is this: what would you find behind a camel? A monumental pile of shit." The song went on to win the 1982 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. "Bombs Away" was recorded on a tape that Nigel Gray had just used with . Copeland said: "when he first set up his home studio he got hold of a load of second hand tape which included some stuff by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Bombs Away was written on a Siouxsie and the Banshees backing track. I changed the speed and did things to the EQ to change the drum pattern. So with the desk I can get my song playing, then press a switch and there's Siouxsie singing away."

Zenyatta Mondatta also saw the band's lyrics turning towards political events, with Sting's "Driven to Tears" commenting on poverty and Copeland's "Bombs Away" referring to the . These themes became more prevalent in the Police's next album, .

Six years later the band re-recorded "" and "". The former was released on , while the latter was released on the  version of Every Breath You Take: The Classics.

 first remastered the album for release in the United States in 1990, as CD #CD-3720. Frank DeLuna and Marv Bornstein mastered the original 1980 vinyl LP, but it's unclear if they also remastered the compact disc.

Title

Copeland said that the group arrived at the album's title after deciding it should roll off the tongue. Zenyatta Mondatta are invented  words, hinting at , at , at the French word for the world ("le monde") and at Reggatta, from the previous album's name, . As Stewart Copeland explained:

"It means everything. It's the same explanation that applies to the last two. It doesn't have a specific meaning like 'Police Brutality' or 'Police Arrest', or anything predictable like that. Being vague it says a lot more. You can interpret it in a lot of different ways. It's not an attempt to be mysterious, just syllables that sound good together, like the sound of a melody that has no words at all has a meaning. Miles (Stewart Copeland's brother and group manager) came up with "Trimondo Blondomina". Very subtle. Geddit? Like three blondes and the world. Then somebody thought of "Caprido Von Renislam". That rolls off the tongue. It was the address of the studio."

, co-founder of , named the champion racehorse  (b. 2004) after this album.

In the  video game  one of the playable characters is a robotic (Omnic) monk named Zenyatta, who formerly belonged to a tribe led by an omnic named Mondatta.

In the English localization for the anime , two characters appear as brothers, known as Zenyatta and Mondatta. This is in contrast to the original release, where the brothers were named Oingo and Boingo, after .

Critical reception Professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRatingB8/10The Daily VaultA-

Zenyatta Mondatta reached #1 in both Australia and the U.K. In the U.S., the album spent almost three years on the charts and peaked at #5.

In a contemporary review of the album,  of  favorably described its offering of "near-perfect pop by a band that bends all the rules and sometimes makes musical mountains out of molehill-size ideas" and complimented the band's "elastic" interplay. It would later receive glowing reviews from re-assessments in Rolling Stone and , among others. Despite being the only Police album not to obtain a spot on Rolling Stone's , it is also the only one of their albums to be rated five out of five stars by .

Track listing

All tracks written by , except where noted

Side oneNo.TitleLength1.""4:042.""3:203.""3:384."Canary in a Coalmine"2:265."Voices Inside My Head"3:536."Bombs Away" (writer: )3:06Side twoNo.TitleLength7.""4:098."" (writer: )2:549."Man in a Suitcase"2:1910."Shadows in the Rain"5:0411."The Other Way of Stopping" (writer: Copeland)3:22